Jerry Everard’s Blog

This photo of comet PAN-STARRS was taken on 8 March. The comet was named for the PAN-STARRS observatory array in Hawaii where it was discovered as c/2011/L4. It took a couple of days trying, but I got there. And here’s how: I went up to Mt Stromlo armed with binoculars – about half an hour before sunset. This way I could set up in daylight, pre-focus the lens on a distant horizon and then wait for the comet to appear.

The setup was a canon 60D with a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 canon zoom lens, mounted on a tripod, with a remote release.

I used mirror lockup to reduce vibration to a minimum – and turned off the image stabilisation. You see, the thing is, that if the camera is mounted solidly on a tripod, then the image stabilising gyro will actually introduce vibration – so turn it off if you’re using a tripod.

I scanned the sky about a hand span above the horizon after the sun set. Towards the end of twilight I was rewarded with the sight of a faint light smudge – which in binoculars resolved into the definite comet shape you see here.

Settings:
I used a 4-second exposure at f5.6 on ISO400 and a zoom of 275mm – so you could get the same photo with a 300mm kit lens. You could also get a pretty good image with a 200mm lens.

Now that the comet has shifted to the Northern hemisphere – there is now an opportunity for those in more northern countries to grab a similar shot

Good hunting! And why not comment with links to your photos? I’d love to see them 🙂

With the moon presenting its closest approach this year coinciding with the full moon I couldn’t resist heading up to Mt Stromlo – next to the observatory – in Canberra Australia. Sure enough it arrived on time at about 5.14pm. Where to look? I used the compas app on the phone to identify where the moon would rise, and got into position a few minutes before moonrise.

Most images were taken through a 300mm zoom on a canon 60D DSLR. It was tripod mounted and I used a remote trigger. A little fill light and sharpening in Adobe Lightroom completed the pictures.

Dawn is traditionally one of the two ‘golden hours’ for photography. Over the next few weeks I will upload a couple of photos and talk about techniques and my approach to the subject. I’m no expert and would appreciate feedback along the way 🙂

The subject of this photo may look like a modern take on a fortress but this is a musical instrument – one of the few full chromatic carillions – a computerised bell suite that can play tunes – often ringing out over Lake Burley-Griffin.

Seen at dawn – the tower was bathed in a golden light. I positioned it on the third, and decided to include its reflection in the still lake to provide a point of interest.

The image was captured on a canon 60D at 1/6th of a second. ISO200 200mm/f4.5. Camera was tripod mounted and I used a remote trigger and live-view mode to reduce vibration.

I then imported the image into Adobe lightroom where I gave it just a tiny bit of sharpening before exporting to jpeg and uploaded via iPhoto.

Next time you find yourself up just before dawn – how about taking advantage of the special light – and share your work in the comments below 🙂

I have added a Pinterest blocker on this blog and here is why: Any images that are scraped from your site and put onto Pinterest become the property of Pinterest. While Pinterest asks people to ensure that they own the copyright or that the images are free of copyright, the site’s software removes all metadata from the image thus potentially absolving Pinterest on the basis that they had no way of knowing that the image was copyrighted by someone other than the poster.

Anyone who derives income from the internet – especially from the images they produce would and should be upset if their images being sold in one domain turn up being given away by another site entirely. While Pinterest has (yesterday) changed its terms of service to indicate that they no longer reserve the right to sell your images it is disturbing to say the least that it was in there in the first place.

I use a WordPress plug-in to achieve this end. Flickr has settings in the privacy component of your profile to block other sites from sharing without your permission – at least Flickr ‘gets it’ and allows users to set the copyright and share settings as befits the user’s wishes.

I’ve always liked the steampunk style – so I thought it was time to add some functional goggles with flip-down magnifiers. I’m happy to share a step-by-step how-to, but a lot will be self-explanatory.

Essentially they are welding goggles. I removed the ventilators and lens holders and sprayed the bright yellow shades black.

Then I removed the lenses from the holders and sprayed the holders and ventilators with an old-gold paint.

Finally I bought a couple of cheapo plastic magnifiers that were about the right diameter and replaced the dark welding shades with the magnifiers, after cutting off the handles – these were glued in place and when the paint had dried I reassembled the whole thing, and this is the result. I was quite pleased with the result!